Spring bedding plants – Ageratum, Alyssum, Coleus

Ageratum

The ever-popular ageratum, with its white or blue flowers, makes a splendid plant in flats or pots for counter sales. Plant the seeds in early February for salable plants in May. These grow best in a cool greenhouse with a temperature around 50 degrees. Transplant your seedlings when they get to be an inch or so high, spacing them about 2 inches apart. They will bud and bloom in these flats and can be sold directly in them. If you want to pot singly, do it before they begin crowding one another in the flat. Ageratum may be troubled by mealy bugs, aphids, and thrips. A malathion spray will control them all.

Alyssum

Although sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima) is a tender perennial, it is treated in the north as an annual. It can be started in the 50-degree greenhouse. January seed-planting should assure salable plants in April. Culture approximates that of ageratum, and the sweet alyssum can be propagated by cuttings

38, 39, 40, 41. Four easy-to-grow and even easier-to-sell bedding plants: Swiss Giant pansy (top left); Crown Jewels petunia (top right); Snow-flake impatiens (bottom left); and Red Rainbow coleus. (Courtesy, Northrup-King & Co., W. Atlee Burpee Co., George W. Park Seed Co., and George J. Ball, Inc.)

and rooted in any growing media. If your greenhouse is crowded, move the flats of sweet alyssum to the cold frame as soon as danger of freezing is past.

Coleus

Coleus is one of America’s most popular bedding plants, but it is also used widely to add color to window boxes and dish gardens, or as a potted plant for window gardens. If you want a great variety in color and form, grow coleus from seed. Sprinkle the seed on light soil or other growing media in a flat or pan. Keep moistened and at a 70-degree temperature. Germination starts within a week. Some of the seedlings will be all-green; these should be discarded, for they are not desirable, lacking the good rich coloring most people want in their coleus. When the young plants begin to crowd each other, transplant individually into 2-inch pots, or plant them into flats of soil, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Seed planted in late January will give you sturdy colorful plants by early May.

If you already have desirable plants you can increase them by cuttings. It takes only 4 to 6 weeks to get established plants from cuttings. Minimum temperature for coleus is 60 degrees. They require no shade and will grow in any average greenhouse soil. In case you pot them, pay strict attention to watering-you’ll find they get very thirsty in small pots.

Eliminate mealy bugs-the chief insect enemy-with mala-thion spray; or if the greenhouse is a free-standing model not attached to your house, the more deadly parathion can be employed with good results. Use it with great care.

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